Tagged: San Diego

The Truth About San Diego

  • News
  • August 1, 2007

Dirk Deppy’s ¡Journalista! opens today with the following quote:

“We’ve put up the superheroes and now we’re on to the people with actual talent.”

San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, looking forward to American Idol.

Mr. Sanders is an asshole.

While in San Diego last week, ComicMix podcast producer Mike Raub and I did a quick estimate on the minimum amount of cash the San Diego Comic-Con pumped into the local economy. With 140,000 in attendance, most of whom staying in hotels, using taxis and public transportation, going to parties, using convention facilities, doing a bit of shopping, paying local and state taxes and dining at local restaurants during the four day show, we estimate comics fans spent a minimum of an eighth of a billion dollars in Mr. Sanders’ town – and most likely more than twice that.

What did we get for our money, outside of the Comic-Con itself? Hotel service that was indifferent at best (hotels were sold out; some folks had to commute in from damn near the Mexican border), and lousy restaurant food with incredibly rotten service. I go to over a half-dozen conventions each year, and never was I treated worse than I was in San Diego last week. Mr. Sanders’ city simply sucks.

Then again, if Sanders thinks American Idol candidates have "actual talent," his head’s so far up his ass he probably thinks the food at the Blarney Stone smells good.

SDCC: Just Be Cos

  • News
  • July 30, 2007

at-the-back-of-the-dc-panel-2838431I’ve seen the Spirit of San Diego, and it’s wearing a costume.

 

Saturday sold out first at the San Diego Comic-Con and many dealers were wondering why the floor was more crowded on Friday.  Well, that’s because Saturday night is the Masquerade.  And if you’re wearing a nice costume you don’t want to, and quite often physically can’t, maneuver on a convention floor that’s even mildly crowded.  So you wander the many acres of convention center space between the rooms.

 

lego-star-wars-3205381And you pose for pictures.

 

Want to bring happiness to millions (or at least hundreds) in one day?  Come to San Diego on Saturday and ask people in costumes to pose for a picture.  They live for it, and I’m glad they do.  They are brilliant posers, having worn out the mirrors in their houses.

 

You don’t have to buy a ticket, you can do it on the sidewalk.  You don’t even have to have batteries in your camera, it’s the moment that counts, not the immortality.

 

Some of them are in this world; a sharp looking black haired guy in decent shape in a spot on Superman outfit.  He was standing in the back of the room during the DC Panel.

 

Some are in their own world, in a costume that barely suits (or fits) them.  And I wouldn’t be cruel enough to post their picture near this paragraph.

 

buddy-christ-4097419After a while you realize that no one human can know all these characters.  After a longer while you start seeing costumes when all the person is is extremely stylish.  I saw a guy in backwoods hippie gear and was thinking maybe Hillbilly Bears when I realized this is just how he walks the streets everyday.  I asked a woman to pose, thinking her outfit was something from Sandman but she was just a very happening goth chick.  And, like a true Shipoopi, she doesn’t get sore if you beg her pardon.

 

My favorite was the gathering of eight Doctors Who.  They’re not only well into their costume and character, they’re clearly having the time of their lives.  And when you take a picture or stop to smile back at them, you get a piece of it for free.

doctors-who-6-6075537

Overheard at San Diego, part 5

  • News
  • July 28, 2007

cherrydarling-8053988People keep talking, and we keep taking notes…

"One guy asked me if I had my leg amputated to get the job." — Lacey Henderson, pictured at right, who’s been appearing as Cherry Darling to promote the DVD release of Grindhouse. Via USA Today.

"How did they make her look like that?" — A mother with two kids looking at Ms. Henderson working at the booth.

"How do they post for a job like that?" — ComicMix‘s Matt Raub

At the pilot screening for ABC’s Pushing Daisies:

Audience member: "There seem to a be a lot of symetric and palindromic references in this show — can you explain?"

(long pause from the writer, director, and cast)

Chi McBride: "Ummm, what?  What did you say? This is COMIC CON.  Repeat your question."

In the hall between panels: "It’s so crowded I couldn’t even get into the ballrooms for the studio panels, and I’m writing for Entertainment Weekly!"

“Hellboy plus Pan’s Labyrinth on steroids.” —Javier Soto describing next year’s Hellboy 2: The Golden Army

Introducing themselves at the GameTap Tomb Raider Re-envisioned panel:

"I’m Stan Lee." –Warren Ellis

"I’m Jack Kirby." –Brian Pulido

"I’m Peter Chung." –Peter Chung

Contributing spies: Kai Connolly, Adriane Nash.

Overheard at San Diego, part 4

  • News
  • July 28, 2007

sdcc2007mystique-8078461Can we hear anything over this much hubbub? Of course we can… and our spies are everywhere.

Around aisle 2300: "I can prove the convention is too crowded. When a pretty girl walks by, and a second pretty girl walks by before you’re done staring at the first one, it’s too crowded."

Marv Wolfman: "The biggest celebrity here is Stan Lee. Everybody, young, old, knows who Stan Lee is, what he looks like, and what kind of personality he is. And of course everybody knows that Stan Lee created Superman."

At the "Writing About Comics" panel:

Tom Spurgeon: "I hope words continue to remain prominent in this field, becuase if we all go to video, I’m screwed."

Glenn Hauman: "Can I quote you?"

Tom: "Sure, and then I’ll link to you."

Douglas Wolk: "Good, and then Dirk can link to you linking to him."

 Douglas Wolk: "I’m a little tired of all these comics that want to a movie when they grow up."

Nisha Gopalan, EW: "Isn’t that Virgin Comics’ business model?"

Tom Spurgeon: "It’s a little amazing that Variety and Enterainment Weekly are covering comics, when distribution is so sporadic– it’s writing about this great book that you might be able to find on such and such a time and maybe in such and such a place."

In the audience at "The Black Panel":

"What is Marv Wolfman doing on this panel?"

"He’s a token."

cartoonjedihead-5603555

Overheard at San Diego, part 3

  • News
  • July 28, 2007

cartoonjedihead-5603555The most quotable things that have been said in public and overheard in private. Onward!

Overheard on the trolley, while looking at the guy to the right: "Is he getting off at the Imperial Transfer station to go to the Con or does he work at the Imperial Transfer Station?"

At the IDW panel, commenting on John Byrne’s art on the upcoming Star Trek: Romulans: "Everybody looks like Namor…"

DC’s new House of Mystery turns the old barn into a bar and restaurant where patrons sit around telling strange stories. Funny, but it seems like we’ve seen that in comics before… Something called Munden’s…

Mike Grell and Mark Ryan (Bumblebee in Transformers) announced a new project called The Pilgrim. Grell starts working on it after he finishes his latest Jon Sable Freelance graphic novel.

Len Wein: "When I first met Hugh Jackman, he said ‘I apologize for being so tall.’ [Jackman is 6’3"; Wolverine, which Len created, is 5’1".] And I said, ‘It’s okay — you play short.’ "

And finally, a special hat tip to Mark Evanier, who mentioned the most heard phrase from Wednesday night.

Contributing writer: Mike Gold

Overheard at San Diego, part 2

  • News
  • July 27, 2007

lucylawlesstattoo-8217844Waiting for a trolley: "I’m so glad, I just found out that Lucy Lawless is going to be here on Sunday. I hope I get to show her my tattoo!" And in case she doesn’t get a chance, everybody else can see it here.

Neil Gaiman, at the Paramount preview panel: "I’m growing vats of people like you all around the world. Eventually we’ll put a bunch of you in a room with knives, and whoever emerges alive will be the winner and can make the Sandman movie."

On Market Street: "IDT buying IDW? Aren’t they supposed to buy a company called IDU first?"

Marvel Studios has both Doctor Strange and Ant-Man in development as live action movies, along with gosh-darn near everything else in the catalog. The good Doctor, of course, will make his live action D2DVD debut in a few weeks. And, according to a source, a new slate of animated D2DVDs is in the works.

Contributors to today’s column: Adriane Nash, Matt Raub, Mike Gold

Overheard at San Diego, part 1

  • News
  • July 26, 2007

Seventeen years ago yesterday in San Diego, Roseanne Barr sang the National Anthem at a Padres game.

While we can’t promise you anything quite like that from any Hollywood types in town for this year’s San Diego Comic-Con International, we’re bringing you the most quotable things we can eavesdrop on.

At the Newark Airport terminal: "It’s tough to tell who’s going to the convention on this flight. You used to be able to tell at a glance." "Yeah, no one’s wearing comic book shirts." "Everybody’s reading Harry Potter, but that doesn’t tell you anything."

On the floor of the convention: "We’re opening up new boxes to sell books on Preview Night. In the first hour. I hope we’ve got enough to last the weekend."

Outside the hall: "I think they’re going to use those Superman bags as tents for emergency housing."

What have you heard? Send your snippets to overheardSDCC@tips.comicmix.com, or come up to us at the show– we’re the one’s in the ComicMix shirts.

Y: The Last Man movie moves forward

  • News
  • July 25, 2007

ythelastmanlogo-8325032ICv2 reports: "New Line Cinema has announced that D.J. Caruso will direct and Carl Ellsworth will write the big screen live action adaptation of Brian K. Vaughan’s epic science fiction comic book series, Y: The Last Man.  Caruso and Ellsworth recently teamed up on the sleeper hit Disturbia, which starred Shia LeBeouf in a clever reworking of the storyline of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, with wheelchair bound photographer Jimmy Stewart replaced in Disturbia by a grounded teenager played by LeBeouf (who is rumored to be a prime candidate to portray Yorick in Y: The Last Man)."

Now I know everybody’s in a rush to get out the door for San Diego, but they’re mixing their Stewart/Hitchcock films. Disturbia was a reworking of Rear Window, not Vertigo. Vertigo, as we all know, has the cool blonde in it. You know– Karen Berger.

ELAYNE RIGGS: Left Behind

  • News
  • July 25, 2007

elayne200-3862826It’s the day before the biggest convention in an American comic fan’s year — the San Diego Comic-Con International.  Just about every one of my ComicMix colleagues is heading out there.  (Don’t ask me how they got hotel rooms, it’s still a mystery to me.)  I’m not.  My boss told me a long time ago that I can’t go on vacation when he’s in the country (yes I know, but it’s still better than being unemployed and sans health insurance), and even if I could I just don’t think I could work up the enthusiasm any more for something so expensive and exhausting.  The closer I get to pushing 50, the more 50 pushes back harder.

I vaguely remember when I used to have the energy for Events.  When I was in college I enthusiastically queued up for a couple hours to see The Empire Strikes Back and was severely disappointed because I was expecting a movie, complete with a resolution, not a chapter.  (When Robin expressed much the same sentiment years later on Usenet, I responded with "Marry me," and the rest is history, sort of.)  I get the idea of wanting to be a part of a phenomenon bigger that one’s self, wanting "bragging rights" to fill your anecdotage.  (I wish I could say I coined that word, but I didn’t, I got it from a Fred Astaire movie and goodness knows where the movie’s writer picked it up.)  When it’s organic and unexpected, the Event phenomenon can be quite fun.  But what’s really organic today?

San Diego grew out of comic fans’ love for their medium and the people who toiled therein.  And then it just grew, and grew, and grew.  It’s nigh unto unwieldy now.  Before Wizard took over the Chicago Comicon, it too was centered around the comics artform; now it’s just another notch on the WizardWorld bedpost.  The more cons grow, the more the fans can convince themselves of the comic industry’s health — but the growth ain’t about comics, it’s about product.

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